It’s not! It is representative democracy within an organization to push forward an agenda. What’s being proposed here has been done before: I’ve been there and done that! This time it’s left-wing national as opposed to international socialist in charactor pandering to the various special interest groups with their hands out. If these people can hold it together long enough they could have a measurable effect on domestic politics for an election cycle or two and then fade away becoming a little remembered foot note in history as a wholly owned subsiderary of the Democratic party. They will have a few victories, but in the end it’s nothing more than meaningless pronouncments of general grievances offering no structure or even workable sugestion toward their resolution. I’ve been there and done that. I had the same objections and comments then too. They fell on deaf ears and then WE just faded away….

And while me and you might not agree on certain political views, I think that you are totally right about this “two-party” political system as being a miserable failure and that “The Occupy Movment” should go straight to organizing a third political party, instead of wasting time to adress grivances to THIS Congress. (Got to be kidding me)

Proof of that is the last 24 hours events, police using tear gas and force to disperse the otherwise peaceful demonstrations in Oakland, Atlanta, Chicago,…

As for the so called “representative democracy”, Wohl, I do feel your pain. “Representative democracy” it’s a scam. The worst con that the average Joe, otherwise a free man, felt for since stone age. Referendum it’s the only fair way to go, IMHO

The ‘Tea Party’ has and will make it’s mark and then it too will fade a way. No, the organization I was in was called United We Stand America. I was a minor functionary and founding member in the early/mid 90’s. I spent countless hours and more money, my own money, than I care to remember, working toward the goal of political victory. For my efforts, I was elected treasurer/secretary of the Greater Pickens/Oconee Chapter, appointed State Treasurer and then elected to the State Chairmanship. For a time, we were a genuine political force to be reconed with. Our base of support was broad across the political spectrum. The movement attracted people who had never voted before as well as independents and moderates of both major parties plus a lot of die-hard Libertarians. We also attracted a lot of crazies. Out and out communists, facists, anarchists, militia types and just plain crazy people. Once they realized that the organization was not going to move in what ever crazy direction they wanted to move it in, they drifted off. Those of us who were just a little crazy stuck it out and fought the good fight until the bitter end. I was elected to the State Chairmanship because there was noone left who wanted the job! I tried to make a go of it but when it became obvious that the horse was dead, I resigned. I walked away and like the ‘Who’ song never to be fooled again! We had all been used. We had been led out onto the political battlefield and abandoned to be slautered like second battle in the movie BraveHeart! The same thing is going to happen to all these Tea Party people….

Ocean, unless you’re going to restrict who is going to have the vote, representative democracy is the only way to go!

The main investor in seasteading.org is a 1%er. And the Blueseed spin off is about outsourcing more jobs with out paying into tax systems of the US. I find it interesting. Now I will go back to the engineering threads and hope I am not banned in the morning.

Well, the idea of seasteading is that if a group wants to form a socialist commune along the lines of the previously referenced Occupy proposed list of demands, they can do so without being able to force others to be a part of it.

Personally, I consider any kind of tax on productivity (income tax, sales tax, taxes on property improvements) to be theft, and the bulk of the occupy list of demands seems to involve stealing from some people to benefit others. If a person sticks a gun at me and demands my money, it is armed robbery, if a group of people block my passage and threaten me if I don’t turn over my money, it is called robbery, and if 50% plus 1 person threaten to kill or kidnap me if I don’t turn over my money, it is still armed robbery.

I can live with taxes (publically collected rents or royalties) on land value, frequency spectrum, and raw materials extraction as a compromise since no one created those things (refer to Henry George), taxes on intellectual property (the patent or copyright holder is receiving a privilege from government, and pollution taxes (but I see the carbon thing as BS, a naturally occuring gas already in the atmosphere is not a pollutant).

One great advantage of the progressives in the Occupy movement forming a new party is it would split the overall progressive vote, so Ron Paul will have an easier time getting elected.

some people tend to think humanity is a good thing, and that the universe is a much better place with it than without it.

how do we decide who gets excluded from voting? here’s an idea: critical thinking skills are typically much more developed in higher educated people. therefore, anyone who has a specific education level is allowed to vote on their own, while those who do not must choose a ‘representative’ who does.

In my oppinion… the OWS movement comes down to Greedy Corporations against Entitled People. Both are in the wrong. People shouldn’t just be Entitled to things. They should have to work for them. And the Corporations shouldn’t get tax payer dollars when they mess up. In capitalism they should be allowed to fail, not buy government support and save themselves.

I’d be happy to see the OWS movement go the way of seasteading, but don’t think it’ll happen, they aren’t libertarian in the least and since they aren’t they need the big government to support what they want, small government wouldn’t be able to do it.

The 99% is about a big a lie as it gets. The 99% are suported by only 37% of america. 19% are against and the remainder care so little about the Occupy movement not to bother deciding a side. 😀 Now not saying that they don’t have some points, but as I said above.

As for OWS compared to Tea Party. The tea party have been many times more respectful to police, improved economy where they have went, tend to have degrees and use them (As opposed to many of the OWS with ‘history’ or ‘philosophy’ degrees that obviously you aren’t going to get hired with LOL. The Tea Party are more organized and less violent. The OWS is more violent, more distructive, and less organized.

In my oppinion… the OWS movement comes down to Greedy Corporations against Entitled People. Both are in the wrong. People shouldn’t just be Entitled to things. They should have to work for them. And the Corporations shouldn’t get tax payer dollars when they mess up. In capitalism they should be allowed to fail, not buy government support and save themselves.

If you take out ‘rebellion’ I believe you’d be more accurate. I believe that Entitlement programs are designed to create a class of people enslaved to the government. (Nothing against you socialist people on the forum (not sure how any their are))